The Secret Garden
THE SECRET GARDEN by Frances Hodgson Burnett
1- Provide information about the author’s biography.
2- Find the themes of the story. Provide examples by means of extracts.
3- Look up the notions of Theosophy and New Thought. In what ways do they relate to the book?
4- Describe the characters in the story.
5- Which symbols can you find in the novel? Explain their meanings according to your interpretation.
6- Mention characteristics of children’s literature in the story.
7- Analyse: setting, point of view, plot, protagonist, genre, major conflict, rising action, falling action, climax.
1- The Author’s Biography
Frances Hodgson Burnett was an English writer and playwright from the nineteenth century (1849 – 1924). Her most famous work is ‘The secret garden’. When Frances was sixteen, she started writing in order to help her family and her first stories were published when she was nineteen. After getting married, she moved to France, had two children and lived there for two years before returning to the United States, where she started to write novels. Even though she lived a lavish lifestyle, had a house in England and travelled there frequently, her oldest son, Lionel, died of tuberculosis. This event led to a relapse of the depression she struggled with for much of her life. She divorced Swan Burnett and remarried. However, her second marriage lasted just a year.
2- Themes of the novel:
Magic:
Chapter 22, page 222.
"The great scientific discoveries I am going to make," he went on, "will be about Magic. Magic is a great thing and scarcely any one knows anything about it except a few people in old books—and Mary a little, because she was born in India where there are fakirs. I believe Dickon knows some Magic, but perhaps he doesn't know he knows it. He charms animals and people. I would never have let him come to see me if he had not been an animal charmer—which is a boy charmer, too, because a boy is an animal. I am sure there
1- Provide information about the author’s biography.
2- Find the themes of the story. Provide examples by means of extracts.
3- Look up the notions of Theosophy and New Thought. In what ways do they relate to the book?
4- Describe the characters in the story.
5- Which symbols can you find in the novel? Explain their meanings according to your interpretation.
6- Mention characteristics of children’s literature in the story.
7- Analyse: setting, point of view, plot, protagonist, genre, major conflict, rising action, falling action, climax.
1- The Author’s Biography
Frances Hodgson Burnett was an English writer and playwright from the nineteenth century (1849 – 1924). Her most famous work is ‘The secret garden’. When Frances was sixteen, she started writing in order to help her family and her first stories were published when she was nineteen. After getting married, she moved to France, had two children and lived there for two years before returning to the United States, where she started to write novels. Even though she lived a lavish lifestyle, had a house in England and travelled there frequently, her oldest son, Lionel, died of tuberculosis. This event led to a relapse of the depression she struggled with for much of her life. She divorced Swan Burnett and remarried. However, her second marriage lasted just a year.
2- Themes of the novel:
Magic:
Chapter 22, page 222.
"The great scientific discoveries I am going to make," he went on, "will be about Magic. Magic is a great thing and scarcely any one knows anything about it except a few people in old books—and Mary a little, because she was born in India where there are fakirs. I believe Dickon knows some Magic, but perhaps he doesn't know he knows it. He charms animals and people. I would never have let him come to see me if he had not been an animal charmer—which is a boy charmer, too, because a boy is an animal. I am sure there